How am I still walking?

On Tuesday, I was rolling for the rest of class with another white belt. He attempted an achilles lock but he wasn't reaping my leg so I was able to sit up and there was almost no pressure and certainly no pain. I thought it was weird that he went for a leg lock, because we're white belts so we aren't supposed to do them (even though no one has told us that, I overheard my coach saying he doesn't teach them to us because of safety concerns)

So we kept rolling and he subbed me with a guillotine. We started up again and he put on a heel hook. I've read on here that this is a pretty dangerous sub because of all the myriad ways it can go wrong and cripple. Again, if I remember correctly, he didn't reap my leg, so I sat on him a little and there was some pressure in my ankle but not any pain.

(I know, I know, "Tap before the pain, when you feel pressure, dammit!" But when you're not expecting another white belt to throw one on, and then your thinking "is this a heel hook? Why is he doing that?" By the time I had realized what was going on, he had let go)

He let go and we went on rolling. (he's a cool dude, btw.)

Well, yesterday my leg felt kinda stiff, but that could just be my imagination because I have a tendency to worry about injuries.

It got me thinking about my old club, and how I'm really starting to hate it. One day the coach there was teaching heel hooks. He told us nothing about how far to go, when to tap, how dangerous they can be, etc. (which was a recurring theme, I now realize)

I got paired with a heavy weight who, when drilling, would take me down and crank the heel hook until my knee felt like it was gunna snap. It hurt so bad. Damn that place was dangerous as hell. That happened a bunch of times.

So how am I still walking around? Shouldn't I have permanent damage now?

Maybe the noobspaz wasn't doing them correctly? When I was a kid we were always doing WWF inspired wrestling, which included crappy leglocks. When I learned a few in actual grappling I learned how important it is for everything to be where its supposed to be. With correct placement, a small amount of force can cause more damage and pain than someone using more force in the wrong position.

This is why I don't like the guard (also because I have little short legs that can't hold even a normal size male that well). You can tap early, tap often, or change your game and not leave your feet out there or get better at reacting when someone starts to set up that move. I don't often get choked or leg-locked but of course this results in getting arm-barred like crazy. Protect one thing, something else ends up vulnerable. The reason you have not been hurt? Agree with other poster: dumb luck. Just my worthless two cents. Answer JNP's question.

"We often joke -- and we really wish it were a joke -- that you will only encounter two basic problems with your 'self-defense' training.
1) That it doesn't work
2) That it does work"
-Animal MacYoung

Well, good for me. Yeah it's weird because with the heavy-weight guy, it hurt like hell, but I guess he was doing them wrong even though they hurt like hell. Strange.

Last night I was super careful about anyone even touching my legs. We have a purple belt that LOVES to knee bar me from quarter position if I **** it up. He made my quarter position a lot better though.

You guys know what I mean though? In hindsight, it's like "oh duh I should've tapped" but when your in the moment you freeze and can't think.

So you think all the damage is gunna hit me at some random point when I'm older? Like my knee is just going to implode when I'm 60 or something?

You may have abnormally flexible ligaments in your knee. Not something I'd want to put to the test personally though.

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I do actually. And it's terrifying. People think it's really cool that I can withstand a double armlock until my arm is in line with my spine, but It's actually really scary because a lot of times the pain just randomly comes on. So I usually just tap when I feel like "yeah, I'm not getting out of this"